Rails 3 brings you improved internationalization with config/locales and a default en.yml to get you started. Now, if YAMLs aren't your thing, Franck Verrot just wrote up an interesting method to store the translations in a database and utilize Rails 3's memory cache to keep from pinging that database multiple times with every request.

When you're writing application tests and need to stub out an external resource, you've got options. Primarily, FakeWeb is the library of choice right now, easily recording and mocking fairly complex requests and interactions. However, FakeWeb does not easily differentiate requests which change based on the data parameters posted. So, if you like FakeWeb, but need something more robust, check out SinatraFakeWebService by Elad Meidar which allows you to script a fake resource within Sinatra and your tests.

Recently, Alan Skorkin had to deploy a Ruby application to Tomcat and use an Oracle database. Scary, we know. But thanks to his effort, we've now got a tutorial on how to handle this situation with details for building the database.yml, building in MRI Ruby, and deploying to Tomcat with Warbler.

If you've ever seen QR Codes, those square 2D barcodes with the funny square/dots in the corners, then you'll know what Ecin Krispie was recently working on. He posted a bit about decoding QR Codes using Ruby, although found that there were no good, native decoders available and had to resort to JRuby to use some of the Java libraries already available. If you know of a good decoder (not just encoder!) or even a good image processing library for MRI, please let us know in the show notes.

If you're building (or working with) an application that doesn't actually delete your models, you may be interested in acts_as_archive. It's an alternative to creating manual, default scopes or the acts_as_paranoid plugin. It actually moves the deleted objects into a separate table, keeping your active objects table clean, which makes your finders and scopes more simple and even in some cases increases the efficiency of your data store. It also provides a simple way to restore data back into active duty.

So, what if you want to build a static HTML site, but would rather use something like HAML (or ERb, Less, Builder, Liquid, or Mustache). Frank was built for exactly this, allowing you to choose your engine while ultimately building static files.

Tilt is a library built by Ryan Tomayko, which is being utilized by Frank, and builds a generic wrapping over popular Ruby template engines. You can think of it as a Rack-like framework for templates, standardizing the interface, allowing you and projects like Frank to seamlessly support your favorite engine.